Part 1 of 3: Leader Preparation Guide. Read this before the night. Nothing in Part 1 is read aloud.
The group discovers the two-part shape of the Mass in the Emmaus story and in Acts, sees that same shape described by a Christian writing in AD 155, and then finds the furniture of the Mass in the throne room of heaven. Along the way they meet the strongest form of the “traditions of men” objection and learn to sort what Jesus instituted, what belongs to the Church’s received liturgical tradition, and what the Church arranges. By the end they should be able to walk into Mass and say where nearly everything came from.
CCC 1346-1347: the Mass has kept the same fundamental structure through the centuries, two great parts forming one act of worship, the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Eucharist, the very pattern of the Emmaus meal. CCC 1090: in the earthly liturgy we share in a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy. CCC 1125: no sacramental rite may be modified at the will of the minister or the community; the liturgy belongs to the whole Church.
Session 1 answered “why sacraments.” Session 2 answered “why a sacrifice.” Tonight answers the more ordinary version of the objection: why all the stuff at Mass. Standing, kneeling, incense, vestments, candles, the same words every week, bells. The objector is not usually angry about it. He is puzzled, and a little suspicious that it is empty.
The night has three discoveries. First, the shape of the Mass is in Luke 24: Jesus opens the Scriptures, then takes bread, blesses, breaks, and gives. Word, then bread. Acts 2:42 confirms the same shape. Second, the basic shape of the Mass is already clearly recognizable by AD 155, when St. Justin Martyr described a Sunday gathering to the Roman emperor; the Catechism says the basic lines he attests have remained to this day (CCC 1345), and much else (prayers, ceremonial, calendar) kept developing. Third, the things at Mass that look most “added” have striking biblical parallels in Israel’s worship and in the heavenly worship of Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4-5: the altar, the incense, the white robes, the elders, the Lamb, “Holy, holy, holy.” The Church teaches something stronger than resemblance: the earthly liturgy participates in the heavenly liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium 8). The Mass did not come from Catholics reading Revelation and duplicating its furniture. Christian worship grew up inside the biblical world of Israel’s worship, and it shares sacramentally in the worship Revelation unveils.
The steelman tonight is the “traditions of men” argument from Mark 7, reinforced by Isaiah 1 and Amos 5, where God says he hates the very sacrifices he commanded. Build it at full strength. Then let the group find that Jesus condemned a tradition that was used to break a commandment (the corban vow), not ritual as such; that the prophets attacked ritual without justice, not ritual; and that Paul commands traditions in 1 Corinthians 11:2 and 2 Thessalonians 2:15. The objection, pressed, proves too much: if commanded ritual were dead formalism, Leviticus would be dead formalism and Jesus, who kept the feasts, would have been a formalist.
The most important honesty of the night is the wall in B7, and it has three layers, not two. First, what Christ instituted as the sacramental sign itself: water for baptism, bread and wine and his own words for the Eucharist. No one can change these. Second, the constitutive elements of the Church’s received liturgical tradition, which are not the sacramental matter but without which it is not the Mass: the basic structure of Word and Eucharist (CCC 1346), the proclamation of Scripture, the Eucharistic Prayer, Communion. These belong to the whole Church, and no parish may drop them. Do not claim each item was dictated by the apostles; claim what CCC 1345 claims, that the basic lines Justin attests have remained until today. Third, disciplines and ceremonial forms the Church arranged and can change: vestment colors, the language, bells, which day gets which readings, whether there is incense. Sacrosanctum Concilium 21 says the liturgy has a divine element that cannot be changed and elements subject to change, and CCC 1205 says the same. Say this plainly. The lesson inside the lesson is that “the Church cannot change this on a whim” does not mean “Jesus personally specified every detail.” The person who asked “why all this stuff” deserves to know which stuff is which, and Session 4 depends on the wall being clear.
A small planted payoff arrives in B5. The centurion’s words from Session 1, “only say the word,” are the words every Catholic says before Communion. Let the group find it. Do not announce it.
The pattern shown on the mountain (Exodus 25:9, 40; Hebrews 8:5). Moses is told to make the tabernacle “after the pattern” he was shown on Sinai. Hebrews says the earthly sanctuary is a copy and shadow of the heavenly one. Israel’s worship was never Israel’s idea. It was a copy of something God showed. The Mass makes a related claim: not that it was copied from Revelation 4-5, but that it participates in the worship Revelation shows.
Vestments, incense, lamps, bread (Exodus 28:2; 30:7-8; 27:20-21; 25:30). God commanded holy garments “for glory and for beauty,” perpetual incense morning and evening, a lamp kept burning always, and the bread of the Presence set before him continually. Every one of these is in a Catholic church. None of them is a pagan import. Israel had them first, by command.
The seraphim and the coal (Isaiah 6:1-8). Isaiah sees the LORD enthroned, hears “Holy, holy, holy,” confesses that he is a man of unclean lips, and has a burning coal from the altar touched to his mouth: “your guilt is taken away.” Then he is sent. Isaiah’s vision contains a remarkable pattern Catholics meet at Mass: acknowledgment of sin, the Sanctus, an altar, something from the altar touching the lips, and finally a sending. The Mass is not built in that order (the Liturgy of the Word sits between the penitential rite and the Sanctus), so present this as a pattern echoed, not a blueprint.
Ezra’s liturgy (Nehemiah 8:1-8). Ezra opens the book, and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD, the people answer “Amen, Amen” with hands lifted, they bow with faces to the ground, and the Levites give the sense of the reading. Standing for the Word, Amen, bowing, and a homily are all older than the Church.
The prophets against empty worship (Isaiah 1:11-17; Amos 5:21-24; Hosea 6:6). These are the steelman’s texts, so read them carefully in prep. God says he is fed up with sacrifices, new moons, and solemn assemblies, every one of which he had commanded in Leviticus. Then he tells them what he wants: cease to do evil, seek justice, defend the fatherless. And the same prophets end with worship restored (Isaiah 2:2-3; Amos 9:11; Malachi 1:11). The problem was never the ritual. It was the ritual without the heart.
“And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits.” St. Justin goes on: when the reader has finished, the presider instructs and exhorts; all rise and pray; bread and wine and water are brought; the presider offers prayers and thanksgivings, and the people say Amen; the gifts are distributed, and the deacons carry them to those who are absent; the wealthy give what they choose for the orphans and widows.
Tier 1. The opening sentence is quoted verbatim from the Ante-Nicene Fathers translation (Roberts and Donaldson). The rest of the paragraph is our summary of chapters 65-67. Other translations word the opening sentence slightly differently.
Explaining the Mass to the newly baptized, St. Cyril walks through the rite step by step: the washing of the priest’s hands, the kiss of peace, “Lift up your hearts,” the thanksgiving, the singing of “Holy, holy, holy” with the seraphim, the calling down of the Holy Spirit on the gifts, the prayers for the living and the dead, the Our Father, and “Holy things for the holy.” A fourth-century catechumen was taught the same order a Catholic follows today.
Tier 2. Summary of the catechesis. The Mystagogical Catecheses are attributed either to St. Cyril or to his successor John of Jerusalem. Either way they describe the Jerusalem liturgy of the fourth century.
On his way to martyrdom in Rome, St. Ignatius urges the Ephesians to gather often in one faith and in Jesus Christ, obedient to the bishop, breaking the one bread, which he calls the medicine of immortality and the antidote against death. For the first generation after the apostles, the gathered Eucharist was not one option among many. It was the medicine.
Tier 2. Summary. The phrase “medicine of immortality” is Ignatius’s and is rendered the same way in nearly every translation. The surrounding sentence is ours.
“The early Christians met in homes with no ritual.” Acts 2:42 has them devoted to “the prayers,” with the definite article: fixed prayers. 1 Corinthians 11 describes an ordered supper with rules. St. Justin in AD 155 describes a fixed order. Meeting in a house is not the same as having no rite; the Passover was celebrated in a house.
“Vestments and incense are pagan borrowings.” Exodus 28 (vestments), Exodus 30:7-8 (incense), Psalm 141:2 (“let my prayer be counted as incense”), Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-4. Israel had every one of these by God’s command before the Church existed.
“We are all priests (1 Peter 2:9); there should be no separate priesthood.” True, and Israel was also “a kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6) while having Levitical priests. The common priesthood and the ministerial priesthood coexist (CCC 1546-1547). Paul describes his own work as “priestly service of the gospel” (Romans 15:16), and the apostles appoint elders in every church (Acts 14:23).
“Jesus said the traditions of men are worthless.” He condemned a tradition used to void a commandment (Mark 7:9-13). Paul commands traditions (1 Corinthians 11:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:15). The word is not the problem; the content is.
“God said he hates our feasts.” He said it about feasts he commanded, to people who were also oppressing the poor. Read Isaiah 1:16-17 right after 1:11-15. He did not tell them to stop the feasts. He told them to stop the evil.
“Why does it have to be the same every week?” Because it is not ours. CCC 1125. A liturgy that changed with the presider’s mood would be his, not the Church’s. Also: Revelation 4:8, “day and night they never cease.”
This is the least combative session and often the most surprising for a Protestant friend. Most evangelical services have more of Revelation 4 in them than they realize: a hymn called “Holy, Holy, Holy,” readings, a collection, a blessing, standing for the Word. Invite your friend to do the Where Did We See It exercise with their own church’s service in mind. Do not use Revelation 4-5 to claim the Mass is the only worship God accepts.
Let your friend build the Mark 7 steelman. They will do it well and will likely add Isaiah 1 themselves. Make sure the group concedes the true part: ritual can go dead, and has.
Ninety minutes as written. The Where Did We See It exercise (B8) is the most fun part of the night and is also on the Take-Home, so it is the first cut. For 75 minutes: (1) do B8 as a two-minute skim and send them home with the sheet; (2) in B4 hunt for only five items; (3) ask only Send question S1.
| Segment | Minutes | Running total |
| Opening prayer and welcome | 4 | 0:04 |
| Win (W1, W2) | 10 | 0:14 |
| Build B1-B2 (Emmaus; Acts 2:42) | 12 | 0:26 |
| Build B3 (St. Justin, AD 155) | 8 | 0:34 |
| Build B4-B5 (the furniture of heaven; Isaiah 6) | 14 | 0:48 |
| Steelman and press (B6, B6a-c) | 16 | 1:04 |
| Build B7 (the wall) | 8 | 1:12 |
| Build B8 (Where Did We See It) | 8 | 1:20 |
| Send, Live It, memory verse, closing | 10 | 1:30 |
Part 2 of 3. Marks: READ ALOUD, SAY, ASK, LEADER. Depth tags: [Floor], [Ground], [Depth].
SAYLet us pray. Lord Jesus, on the road to Emmaus you opened the Scriptures and then you broke the bread, and they knew you. Open the Scriptures for us tonight, and let us know you where you promised to be. Amen.
W1 Read your sentence from last week, the one for the friend who thinks the Mass re-sacrifices Jesus. Does anyone want to trade?
Leader: Two minutes. This is review and it builds confidence.
W2 What is one thing done at Mass that you have never understood and always assumed was just “Church stuff”?
Leader: Write the list on the board. You will cross things off it during the night.
SAYLast week we found out what the Mass is. Tonight we find out where its shape came from, and where all the stuff came from. Start on the afternoon of the Resurrection, on a road.
B1 Read Luke 24:13-35. Two disciples are walking to Emmaus. List, in order, everything Jesus does from the moment he joins them to the moment he vanishes. [Floor]
Leader: Keep them in order. The order is the discovery. Note that Luke names only Cleopas. The second disciple is unnamed.
He walks with them. He asks what they are discussing. He listens to their grief. He rebukes them gently and then, “beginning with Moses and all the prophets,” interprets the Scriptures about himself. At table he takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. Their eyes are opened. He vanishes. They say their hearts burned while he opened the Scriptures, and they tell the apostles “how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.”
Two movements. First the Scriptures are opened. Then bread is taken, blessed, broken, given. Word, then bread. That is the Mass: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Luke tells this story on Easter Sunday afternoon, and the four verbs at the table (took, blessed, broke, gave) are the four verbs of the Last Supper. CCC 1347 says this is the very pattern of the Eucharist.
B2 Read Acts 2:42. What four things did the first Christians devote themselves to? Which two match Emmaus? [Floor]
Leader: Draw attention to the little word “the” before “prayers.”
The apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. Teaching is the Word; breaking of bread is the Eucharist. Fellowship (koinōnia) and “the prayers,” with the definite article, meaning fixed prayers at set times. Acts 20:7 adds the day: “on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread.” Sunday, Word, bread, fixed prayers. Within weeks of Pentecost the shape is set.
SAYNow jump about 120 years, to a Christian philosopher in Rome writing an open letter to the emperor to explain what Christians do on Sunday, because rumors were spreading. Listen for your parish.
B3 Listen to St. Justin Martyr, writing around AD 155. As you listen, write down every element you recognize from Mass. [Ground]
Leader: Read the Voice 1 box aloud, slowly. Then collect the list.
Sunday. Everyone gathers in one place. Readings from the apostles (the Gospels and letters) and the prophets. A homily from the presider. Standing to pray. Bread, wine, and water brought forward. Prayers and thanksgiving by the presider (the Eucharistic Prayer). The people answer “Amen.” Distribution of the gifts. Deacons carry Communion to the absent. A collection for the orphans and widows. Justin also says in chapter 66 that this food is called Eucharist and is not received as common bread.
That is the Mass, described by a man who was born about the time the last apostle died. The Church did not slowly pile things on. The order was there at the start and has stayed. CCC 1345 quotes this whole passage.
SAYSo the basic Word-and-Eucharist shape reaches back into the Church’s earliest life. What about the stuff? Altars, incense, robes, candles, kneeling, the same words every week. Let us look at the worship Scripture shows us in heaven and see why Catholic worship can feel surprisingly familiar.
B4 Live discovery. Read Revelation 4:1-11, 5:6-14, and 8:3-4. Hunt for everything that is also in a Catholic church or a Catholic Mass. Shout them out. [Ground]
Leader: Expect: a throne, twenty-four elders in white robes (presbyteroi, “elders,” the term from which the English word “priest” historically developed; do not present them as proof of ministerial priests), lamps, “Holy, holy, holy,” falling down to worship, a Lamb standing as though slain, incense that is the prayers of the saints, a scroll opened, “Amen,” an altar (8:3; also 6:9), a new song. Add 19:9 (the marriage supper of the Lamb) and 19:1 (“Hallelujah”) if they are quick.
Heaven has all the stuff. Elders in white robes. Lamps burning. “Holy, holy, holy” sung day and night without ceasing. Worshipers falling down. A Lamb, slain, standing at the center. Incense rising with the prayers of the saints. A book opened and read. An altar. Amen. Hallelujah. A wedding feast of the Lamb.
The Mass did not add these things to Christian worship. The Mass participates in the worship of heaven, which is why Revelation’s imagery feels so familiar; the worship going on right now before the throne is the worship the Church joins. Hebrews 8:5 says the earthly sanctuary was built “according to the pattern” shown on the mountain. Hebrews 12:22-24 says that when we worship, we have come to Mount Zion, to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to Jesus and his sprinkled blood. The altar in your parish is where last week’s Lamb, standing as slain, is joined by the earth. CCC 1090 and Sacrosanctum Concilium 8 call the Mass a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy.
B5 Read Isaiah 6:1-8. What do the seraphim say? What happens to Isaiah’s mouth, and what does the angel say it does? Now: what does every Catholic say just before Communion, and where have you heard the second half of that line? [Ground]
Leader: Give them the first two answers, then ask the third and wait. Someone will remember the centurion.
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts”: the Sanctus, sung at every Mass. Isaiah cries that he is a man of unclean lips. A seraph takes a burning coal from the altar, touches it to his mouth, and says, “your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.” Something from the altar, touched to the lips, taking away sin. Then, “Here am I! Send me.”
And before Communion: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” Those are the centurion’s words from Matthew 8:8, the man from our first session who said a word was enough. The Church put his sentence in the mouth of every Catholic at the moment the Word made flesh comes to their roof. The one who trusted the word receives the Body.
LEADERFull strength. If a friend is present, let them build it, and let them add Isaiah 1 and Amos 5 themselves.
SAYHere is the objection at its strongest, and it comes from Jesus’s own mouth.
READ ALOUDMark 7:1-13. Then Isaiah 1:11-15 and Amos 5:21-24.
SAYThe argument goes like this. The Pharisees had a mountain of ritual: washings, rules, traditions handed down, all of it sincere. Jesus called it the tradition of men and said they had left the commandment of God. Isaiah and Amos say God hates the feasts, the offerings, the assemblies; he will not listen to their prayers. Why? Because ritual crowds out the heart. It becomes a substitute for justice and for a real relationship. The Reformers looked at medieval Catholic worship and saw exactly this: an elaborate system of gestures and objects that had become the religion itself. So they stripped the altars and kept the Word. Every layer of ritual is one more place for the heart to hide. Simpler is safer.
ASKIs that fair? What is true in it?
LEADERLet them concede that ritual can go dead and often has, including in Catholic parishes. Then press.
B6a Press 1. Read Mark 7:9-13 again. What exactly is the tradition Jesus condemns, and what did it do? [Ground]
The corban vow: a man could declare his property dedicated to God and thereby refuse to support his parents, breaking the commandment to honor father and mother. Jesus condemns a tradition that was being used to cancel a commandment of God. He does not condemn ritual. He kept the feasts (John 7:10) and went to synagogue “as his custom was” (Luke 4:16). He sang the Passover hymn (Mark 14:26) and wore the tassels the law required (Matthew 9:20, “the fringe of his garment”). He told a healed leper to go make the offering Moses commanded (Mark 1:44).
B6b Press 2. Read Isaiah 1:16-17 and Amos 5:24, the verses right after the ones we read. What does God tell them to do instead? Does he tell them to stop the sacrifices? [Ground]
Leader: Also ask: who commanded those sacrifices in the first place?
“Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression.” “Let justice roll down like waters.” He does not say stop the feasts. He says stop the evil you bring to them. And the sacrifices he says he hates are the ones he commanded in Leviticus. So the prophets cannot be attacking ritual as such, or they would be attacking God. They attack ritual with an empty heart. The same books end with worship restored: Isaiah 2:2-3, Amos 9:11, and last week’s Malachi 1:11, a pure offering. God’s answer to empty ritual was never no ritual. It was a full one.
B6c Press 3. Read 1 Corinthians 11:2 and 2 Thessalonians 2:15. What does Paul say about traditions? [Ground]
“Maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you.” “Stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.” Paul commands traditions, including unwritten ones, and 1 Corinthians 11:23 shows what one of them is: the Eucharist, which he “received” and “delivered.” Tradition is not the enemy. Traditions that cancel God’s commands are.
Here is the rule the group can now state: God condemns empty or hypocritical ritual, not ritual simply because it is ritual. The objection, pushed to the end, proves too much. If commanded ritual were dead formalism, then Leviticus was dead formalism, the seraphim are formalists, and Jesus was one too.
SAYNow the honest part. Not everything at Mass is the same kind of thing, and a person who asks “why all this stuff” deserves to know which stuff is which.
B7 Sort these into three columns: “Christ instituted as the sign itself,” “constitutive parts of the Church’s received liturgical tradition,” and “the Church arranged and can change.” Bread and wine. The words “This is my body.” Reading Scripture aloud. The Eucharistic Prayer. Communion. The color of the vestments. Latin or English. Bells at the consecration. Incense. Kneeling for the consecration. Which readings fall on which Sunday. Baptism with water. The collection. [Depth]
Leader: Let them argue. The middle column is the one they will not expect. Then give the principle from Sacrosanctum Concilium 21 and CCC 1205.
Christ instituted as the sign itself: water for baptism, bread and wine, and the words “This is my body.” These are the sacraments’ own matter and form, and nobody can change them. Constitutive elements of the Church’s received liturgical tradition: the basic shape of Word and Eucharist (Luke 24; Acts 2:42; CCC 1346), the proclamation of Scripture (1 Timothy 4:13), the Eucharistic Prayer, and Communion. Christ did not dictate a lectionary or the wording of a Eucharistic Prayer, but the basic lines Justin describes in AD 155 have remained to this day (CCC 1345), and no parish may drop them. The Church arranged and can change: vestment color, language, bells, incense, posture rules, which readings fall where, how the collection is taken. Paul told the Corinthians to set money aside on the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:2), so even the collection has an apostolic root, but its form is the Church’s.
The Second Vatican Council said the liturgy has a divine element that cannot be changed and human elements that can and sometimes must (Sacrosanctum Concilium 21; CCC 1205-1206). And CCC 1125: no priest, no parish, no committee may change the rite on their own authority, because it belongs to the whole Church. That is why it is the same every week. It is not ours. Keep this wall in mind. Notice that “the Church cannot change it” does not always mean “Jesus specified it.” Next week we go past the third column altogether, to things that are not part of the rite and are optional.
B8 Where Did We See It. Match each thing done at Mass to its Scripture. Work in pairs. The sheet is on your Take-Home. [Floor]
Leader: Answers are in the key below. Do as many as time allows. The rest are homework.
| At Mass | Where it comes from |
| “The Lord be with you” | Ruth 2:4; Luke 1:28 |
| “Lord, have mercy” (Kyrie) | Matthew 20:30-31; Luke 18:13 |
| “Glory to God in the highest” (Gloria) | Luke 2:14 |
| Standing for the Gospel | Nehemiah 8:5 |
| The homily | Nehemiah 8:8; Luke 4:16-21 |
| “Lift up your hearts” | Lamentations 3:41 |
| “Holy, holy, holy” (Sanctus) | Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8 |
| Kneeling | Luke 22:41; Philippians 2:10 |
| “This is my body” | Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24 |
| “Behold the Lamb of God” | John 1:29; Revelation 19:9 |
| “Lord, I am not worthy” | Matthew 8:8 |
| The sign of peace | Romans 16:16; John 20:19 |
| Incense | Psalm 141:2; Revelation 8:3-4 |
| Candles and lamps | Exodus 27:20-21; Revelation 4:5 |
| Vestments | Exodus 28:2; Revelation 4:4 |
| The altar | Hebrews 13:10; Revelation 6:9 |
| The sign of the cross | Ezekiel 9:4; Revelation 7:3 |
| Holy water | Numbers 8:7; Ezekiel 36:25 |
| “Amen” | 1 Corinthians 14:16; Revelation 5:14 |
| The collection | 1 Corinthians 16:2 |
| “Go forth” (the dismissal) | Isaiah 6:8; Matthew 28:19 |
Many readers of Luke 24 have noticed that Jesus disappears at the exact moment the bread is broken and their eyes are opened. One old reading says he vanished because he was now present to them another way, in the bread in their hands. The Church has not defined this reading, and Luke does not say it. But it is worth sitting with: the two disciples, who had walked with him for miles, tell the apostles that they knew him “in the breaking of the bread,” not in the walk.
S1 Look at the board from W2. Which “Church stuff” turned out to be Scripture? How will you stand there differently on Sunday?
S2 What is the difference between a ritual done with the heart and one done without it? What makes the difference in you, on a Sunday when you do not feel like being there?
SAYHoly, holy, holy Lord, God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Thank you for letting the earth join in. Make our worship full, not empty. Send us out as you sent Isaiah. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
| Q | The one-line answer |
| B1 | Scriptures opened, then bread taken, blessed, broken, given. Word, then bread. |
| B2 | Teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, the prayers. Sunday (Acts 20:7). |
| B3 | AD 155: Sunday, readings, homily, standing, bread and wine, thanksgiving, Amen, distribution, collection. |
| B4 | Heaven has the altar, incense, white robes, elders, lamps, Sanctus, the Lamb, Amen. The Mass participates in the worship of heaven. |
| B5 | Sanctus; coal from the altar to the lips; the centurion’s words before Communion. |
| B6a-c | Corban, not ritual; stop the evil, not the feasts; Paul commands traditions. Empty or hypocritical ritual condemned, not ritual as such. |
| B7 | Three layers: water, bread, wine, the words (Christ); Word and Eucharist, Scripture, Eucharistic Prayer, Communion (received liturgical tradition); colors, language, bells, lectionary (arranged, changeable). |
| B8 | See the table. |
Part 3 of 3. Every passage used tonight, in order, plus what you need in the room.
Materials: Bibles, a board for the W2 list and the B7 columns, Take-Home 3 for each person (it carries the Where Did We See It sheet), the Voice 1 box to read aloud in B3.
| Where | Passage | Use |
| Epigraph | Luke 24:35 | Known in the breaking of the bread |
| B1 | Luke 24:13-35 | Emmaus: Word then bread |
| B2 | Acts 2:42; 20:7 | Four devotions; Sunday |
| B3 | St. Justin, First Apology 65-67 | The Mass in AD 155 |
| B4 | Revelation 4:1-11; 5:6-14; 8:3-4; 6:9; 19:1, 9; Hebrews 8:5; 12:22-24 | The furniture of heaven |
| B5 | Isaiah 6:1-8; Matthew 8:8 | Sanctus, coal, the centurion |
| Steelman | Mark 7:1-13; Isaiah 1:11-15; Amos 5:21-24 | Traditions of men; hated feasts |
| B6a | Mark 7:9-13; John 7:10; Luke 4:16; Mark 14:26; Matthew 9:20; Mark 1:44 | Corban; Jesus kept the rites |
| B6b | Isaiah 1:16-17; Amos 5:24; Isaiah 2:2-3; Amos 9:11; Malachi 1:11 | Stop the evil; worship restored |
| B6c | 1 Corinthians 11:2, 23; 2 Thessalonians 2:15 | Paul commands traditions |
| B7 | Acts 2:42; 1 Timothy 4:13; 1 Corinthians 16:2 | The wall, three layers |
| B8 | See the Where Did We See It table | Matching |
| Prep only | Exodus 25:9, 30, 40; 27:20-21; 28:2; 30:7-8; Nehemiah 8:1-8; Hosea 6:6; Exodus 19:6; Romans 15:16; Acts 14:23; Psalm 141:2 | Roots and Objection Bench |
| Memory | Luke 24:35 | |
| Next week | Matthew 6:5-15; Luke 1:26-45; Numbers 15:37-41 | Pre-reading |
Catechism: 1345; 1346-1347; 1348-1355; 1090; 1137-1139; 1125; 1205-1206; 2177-2178; 1546-1547. Sacrosanctum Concilium 7, 8, 21.
Voices: St. Justin Martyr, First Apology 67 (Tier 1, opening sentence; remainder summary); St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catecheses 5 (Tier 2, authorship note); St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ephesians 20 (Tier 2).